English articles are perhaps the most difficult grammatical items for Japanese students to master. However, because these are among the most frequently occurring grammatical items in English, Japanese students must concern themselves with them.

This study was based on a study by Joy Reid (1987) on the perceptual learning style preferences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptual learning style preferences of three groups of students: Japanese students studying in the US, Japanese students studying in Japan, and American students studying in the US. The perceptual styles studied were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, with the additional styles of group and individual learning also being studied. The learning style preferences were identified so as to determine the relationship between style and the variables of native language, length of stay in the US, and major field of study.

Japanese ESL students are often evaluated negatively by their teachers because of their quiet verbal behavior in the classroom; yet, this study suggests that such silence may be situation specific. The purpose of this study is to describe characteristics of eight Japanese ESL students' production and interaction by comparing with those of four non-Japanese students, across three settings: teacher-fronted, group work, and NS-NNS conversation.

In the past decade the number of dual language immersion programs in US public schools has grown to more than 2000. The benefits of dual language immersion for emergent bilinguals (EBs) have been confirmed by numerous studies. However, lacking from this literature is research which focuses on leadership within dual immersion schools. Despite an upsurge in the number of immersion schools, few studies examine the characteristics of effective immersion leaders. The aim of this study is to examine the leadership characteristics of principals leading K-5 dual language immersion programs who have increased student achievement among EBs. The purpose of this case study is to identify leadership characteristics of three successful K-5 dual immersion principals and to understand the relationship of such characteristics to the student growth of Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). In the literature review, I present the theoretical framework of Bolman and Deal (2003), historical perspectives of immersion in the United States, learning perspectives in the area of dual language immersion, and leadership and student achievement. The research approach for this study is a case study design. The subjects for this study are experienced principals who are successful in terms of student achievement for EBs as measured by school performance exceeding their district performance average and that of comparison schools. To answer the research question about the characteristics of successful leaders of dual immersion schools, I conducted a qualitative study to include principal interviews, school document review, and teacher focus groups. As schools increase their focus on reducing racial inequities, how to reduce educational inequities among EBs must also be a focus. By understanding the characteristics of leaders who are successful with EBs, we can impact school district hiring practices, principal preparation programs, and district policies.

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping is a text organization strategy which may be used to explicate text structure and content relationships with both expository prose and fiction. The purpose of this study was to use semantic mapping to explicate the structure and content of short fiction and to measure the effect, if any, on comprehension. For the purposes of this study, comprehension was defined two ways: (1) recognition comprehension, which is the ability to retain and recall factual detail from text content, and (2) comprehension as evidenced by the use of certain critical thinking skills, i.e., elaboration and supplementation in forming written responses. Two hypotheses were posed: 1. The use of semantic mapping will result in an increase in recognition comprehension by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on a combination multiple choice and true/ false quiz. 2. The use of semantic mapping will result in greater use of elaboration and supplementation by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on an analysis of a quiz requiring written responses. In order to determine the results of this study, .t-tests were used to compare the mean scores between groups. In the case of recognition comprehension, the group receiving the treatment, semantic mapping, did score significantly higher than the control group. In the case of comprehension, as evidenced by the use of elaborations and supplementations in written responses, the group which used semantic mapping showed a higher level of use, but the difference was not statistically significant. A Mann-Whitney U test ranked the subjects' scores individually on an ordinal scale and then compared the means between groups. In the case of elaborations the treatment group showed a significantly higher level of use. However, there was no corresponding significant difference in the case of supplementations.

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the short term and and long term second language (L2) gains of first year Spanish students exposed to the Audiolingual Method (ALM) and the Natural Approach. The experiment consisted of two randomly selected groups which were exposed to four presentations. Two of these presentations delivered content material following a Natural Approach lesson design while the other two delivered content material following an ALM lesson design in such a way that both groups were exposed to two ALM lessons and two Natural Approach lessons. All subjects were pre-tested prior to the delivery of these lessons and subsequently tested after the first lessons for short term L2 gains. They were then re-tested after several weeks to measure long term L2 gains. The number of subjects that participated in the experiment was 249 and included all enrolled first year Spanish students at Oregon State University for the 1992 fall term. The data were analyzed using the two-way analysis of variance. The results of the investigation indicated that teaching method was not a significant factor in students' short term and long term L2 aquisition gains. The study thus implies that neither the Natural Approach nor the ALM can be considered superior in terms of quantifiable student gains and retention. Recommendations for further study are presented.

Technological advances in Digital Signal Processing over the last decade have provided applied linguists with a number of computerized applications for speech analysis which can be of benefit to both the researcher and the instructor. This research project explores the techniques of speech spectrography and implements methods of acoustic phonetics to current issues in Second Language Acquisition theory. Specifically, the effects of vowel production in one's native language on the targets in a second language are investigated. Acoustic measurements of English vowels spoken by Japanese students were compared with measurements of native Japanese vowels and American English vowels. In addition, these data were compared with measurements of learner speech from a variety of native language backgrounds. Vowels from both groups of non-native English speakers showed tendencies toward the center of the vowel space. The less-experienced group showed greater token-to-token variability across height parameters than across frontedness parameters while the more experienced group showed no difference for parameters. Both groups exhibited greater frontedness than height variability between speakers which can be explained in part by differences in vocal tract size. In addition, Flege's Speech Learning Model was tested. Data did not support the hypothesis that similar vowels are more difficult to produce than different vowels. ANOVA tests showed that large LI vowel inventories do not advantage learners of languages with many vowels. The results suggest that the unique qualities of L2 speech may have more to do with developmental processes than L 1 interference.

There is increasing interest on the part of ESL educators in the inclusion of contemporary, global issues in their classrooms. Theory about content-based ESL, as well as trends in education, generally, lend support to such enthusiasm. However, ESL educators may be erroneously assuming that their interest in this material is shared by their students. Global issues can also be controversial. Their inclusion in the classroom has the potential to create an uncomfortable, and therefore ineffective, learning atmosphere in a multicultural ESL setting. This qualitative case study examined the use of global issues as the content material in a university-based ESL advanced listening/ speaking class, from the perspective of ten students. A variety of data-gathering methods were employed: direct observation of whole-class sessions; observation and audio-recordings of small-group discussions; tape-recorded journals created by the subjects; audio-recordings of two interviews conducted with each subject. The study focused on three areas: awareness of/interest in global issues developed by the subjects while in their home countries; background experiences and interest in critical analysis developed by the subjects prior to the study; possible changes experienced by the subjects, both in comfort and interest in using global issues in the ESL classroom, during the study. The results indicate that the majority of the subjects entered the classroom with some exposure to several specific global issues. Most had little experience in analyzing the issues using the type of critical analysis common to American academic settings. Initially, most felt hesitant about publicly expressing opinions regarding controversial issues; this reluctance was alleviated by the end of the term. Interest in the material also increased for most subjects during the term. The primary difficulties were found to be related less to global issues and more to the activities performed while working with the subject matter. The study concludes that global issues may be better- suited to classroom activities requiring less public expression of individual ideas and opinions. It also recommends training for ESL educators in intercultural conflict resolution, to enable them to facilitate effective classroom discussion of controversial issues.

Over the past ten years, the use of student writing journals has become increasingly widespread in the TESOL field. Such journals serve a wide variety of purposes: a cultural diary, a free writing exercise, a forum for reaction or comment on readings or classroom discussions, in addition to a form of teacher/student dialogue. The main purpose of this study has been to determine the relationship of topic assignment to the quantity and quality of resulting entries. The data, 144 journal entries generated by ten adult ESL students over a period of ten weeks, were measured for length, in terms of total words and total number of T-units, and quality as assessed by the Jacobs profile (1981) which considers the following areas: content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. In addition, student reactions to instructor comments and attitudes toward journal keeping were explored in an end of term questionnaire. It was found that, on a group level, the assignment of four specified topic types (A. Topics relating to class lectures and discussions, B. Topics relating class discussions to the students' respective cultures, C. Topics relating to class or personal experiences and D. No topic assignment) did not appear to have any relationship with either the quality or quantity of writing. However, on an individual level, topic assignment did seem to have a relationship with the quantity of writing and in some cases, the quality as well. In considering student reaction to instructor comments, all students reported reading instructor comments, but rarely responded to them. When considering topic assignment, 74% of the students stated preferring an assigned topic, yet 60% actually wrote more when given a free choice of topic. Also, on the individual level, students stated a variety of topic type preferences that roughly corresponded with an increase in entry length. Finally, students seemed to have a positive attitude toward journal keeping as 80% stated they would like to keep a journal next term.

In order to determine the reliability of international students' English as a Second Language (ESL) class performance as a predictor of academic performance, a population of 169 international students at Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon were selected and statistical tests were performed on their GPAs and TOEFL scores. Individual students' GPAs were computed for all ESL classes taken and for each component--grammar, reading, writing, and speaking/listening--as well as for the end of the first quarter, first year, and second year of academic study. Pearson Coefficient Correlations were then computed for the ESL and academic GPAs. The students were also divided into subgroups based upon gender, nature of academic major (more-verbal or less-verbal), age, nationality (Asian or Middle-Eastern), number of ESL classes taken, amount of previous English-speaking college experience, prior education level, TOEFL score, and PSU entry date. Then mean GPAs were calculated for each of these which were compared by T-tests. The results were mixed. While it was clear that ESL grades and academic grades correlated strongly for some variable groups, it was difficult to determine which variables had the strongest effect because of subgroup composition. For example, female students, students from Asia, and students whose majors fit the more-verbal category showed strong and statistically significant correlations for ESL-second year academic grades; but 90% of the women were from countries of Asia, and the proportion of both Asian and female students in the more-verbal majors was much higher than that of males or students from countries of the Middle East. There were two patterns that stood out in the research results. One was that ESL students who had taken twelve or more ESL classes maintained consistent academic GPAs across time, while those who had taken fewer than twelve ESL classes and all students in the non-ESL group had GPAs that started higher than those of the first group but declined over the two year period--some of them enough to be statistically significant. The second pattern was that groups with strong ESL academic GPA correlations tended to do better in college that did those with weaker ESL-academic GPA relationships. TOEFL scores were correlated to both ESL and academic grades. In the first case, there were both moderately positive and statistically significant relationships. In the second case, the correlations were very low; and for non-ESL students, there was essentially no correlation. But comparing mean academic GPAs showed a significant difference between students who scored below 500 and those who scored 500 and above on the TOEFL.